Kids These Days Are Exposed to Less Violence

Following
a general downward trend in violence, surveys of over 10,000 children
and caregivers for a new study have shown that from 2003 to 2011, kids
experienced a significant drop in exposure to violence

Mass shootings and severe cyberbullying cases have peppered the
news over the past few years, suggesting that as a species, we’re
getting more brutal, not less. But many researchers agree this is a
common misconception. In actuality, violence is on the decline, and a
new study published today in the journal JAMA Pediatrics finds that kids’ exposure to violence in particular has dropped significantly.

The researchers analyzed surveys of over 10,000 kids and caregivers
in 2003, 2008 and 2011, and found that nationwide there were major drops
in assaults involving weapons and injuries; assaults by peers and
siblings; physical and emotional bullying; and sexual victimization.
While acknowledging that it’s possible the children surveyed were not
all entirely forthcoming — for kids under 10, the parent stayed on the
phone during the conversation; the rest were passed the phone by a
parent — researchers think that overall, respondents told the truth
about their exposure to violence. “We probably have an undercount,” says
study author David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children
Research Center. “But the important thing for studying trends is that we
have no reason to think that the undercounting is responsible for any
of the trend findings.”

And the new results are consistent with other evidence that shows
child maltreatment is dropping. The National Crime Victimization Survey,
considered the nation’s premier source of information on criminal
victimization, shows kids’ exposure to violent crime has fallen since 2008. Sexual abuse is also down, as are police reports of crime and homicide.

The researchers of the JAMA Pediatrics study have a few
theories as to why. One is that the dissemination of violence prevention
and intervention strategies, like school programs targeting bullying
and dating violence, has been effective. Another, perhaps more
surprising theory, is that the growing use of psychiatric medication
among youth and adults has tamped down their aggression. And of course,
there’s a theory that increased use of technology has resulted in less
face-to-face violent confrontations.

There’s some contradictory evidence, though, too — for instance the data showing a rise
in hospital-treated abusive-head-trauma cases from 2007 to 2009, and
evidence that real-life bullying is still more prevalent than
cyberbullying. “Claims by the media and researchers that cyberbullying
has increased dramatically … are largely exaggerated,” researcher Dan
Olweus, a psychologist at the University of Bergen, Norway, said in a statement.

Still, the researchers say that given their large population size and
outside support, the data is convincing. They write, “It is important
to buffer widely held assumptions (often derived from high-profile media
stories, such as those on school shootings, Internet predators, or
bullying-related suicides) that violence and abuse are on the rise,
along with the facile blaming of easy targets, such as video games, the
Internet, funding cutbacks, parental laxness, and insufficient criminal
penalties.”

So while it can be hard to believe that we are living in a less
violent time when tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School
shooting still occur, it may help to look to one of the most vocal
advocates for the idea that societal violence as a whole is down. Steven
Pinker, a well-known psychology professor at Harvard University, has
mapped violence from biblical time to today, and he’s found that as a
species, we are far less physically aggressive toward one another than
we were in times previous. He says that “today, we are probably living in the most peaceful time of our species existence.”

Most logical thing I read all day and very true and I try to explain it to people but they don't get it. In ancient times railings, wars, rapes, and etc were an all time high hence hammurabi code was put in place and the laws of Moses and Egyptian laws. But let the emotionals say it all

Most logical thing I read all day and very true and I try to explain it to people but they don't get it. In ancient times railings, wars, rapes, and etc were an all time high hence hammurabi code was put in place and the laws of Moses and Egyptian laws. But let the emotionals say it all

That's the usual for qualified document scientific research. You overestimate human individualism and difference of experience. Usually ten to twenty thousand is good enough sample to get a good idea and picture of what goes on in society.

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